How to use Trezor Wallet – Step-by-step Guide

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Trezor is a hardware cryptocurrency wallet from Satoshilabs. Available in white, grey or black and costing around $100, it’s designed to keep your crypto safe by storing your wallet info and signing transactions without transmitting any private data online.

This guide looks at all the essentials you can perform with your Trezor, from setting up to sending and receiving coins.

1. Setting Up

Connect your Trezor to your device’s USB slot with the cable provided in the box.

Go to myTrezor.com and install the extension for your browser. You can use Trezor on Android or an iPhone, or on a Windows or Mac computer.Image source: Trezor

Activate the extension and myTrezor will ask you to choose a PIN. On your device, you’ll see nine buttons in a normal 3×3 keypad layout, but the numbers are obscured.

Check your Trezor’s screen to see which numbers are in which location – it changes every time – and use your device to set your PIN.Image source: CoinDesk

Your Trezor will now display your 24-word wallet “seed”, one word at a time. You must write this seed down and keep it somewhere very safe: if your Trezor is damaged, stolen, or lost, you can use the seed to rebuild your entire wallet.

2. Receiving Bitcoin

When you buy bitcoins on CoinBase or a similar site, you’ll need your wallet address (also called the “public key”).

You don’t need to connect your Trezor to receive, but you do need to connect it to find your wallet address.

Connect your Trezor to your computer, Android mobile or iPhone.

Go to myTrezor.com and click Account #1. You’ll see a list of all transactions performed with this account (which will be blank at first).

Click the Receive tab.

Your public wallet address is the long string of letters and numbers, or you can scan the QR code if you’re using an Android mobile or an iPhone.

5. Any funds sent to this address will go to your Trezor wallet. Since Bitcoin is a completely virtual currency, you don’t need to connect your device: the blockchain maintains a record of your wallet balance at all times.Image source: CoinDesk

When you receive bitcoins, transactions show asUnconfirmed until sufficient nodes have seen the transfer and confirmed that it’s legitimate.

That usually happens within 15 minutes, though it can be longer if the Bitcoin network is very busy!

MyEtherWallet will ask you to confirm exporting your public key. The site needs your key to check the blockchain for transactions, but it’s the public key. Nothing private is transmitted. Click Export.

The site will show you a list of the wallet addresses on your Trezor. Select the one you wish to use and click Unlock to continue.

You can receive without plugging in your Trezor, the same as for Bitcoin: just send assets (ether or ERC20 tokens) to the wallet address. Sending works in a similar way to myTrezor: check out our MyEtherWallet guide for full details!